I’m so excited! I spotted this lovely couple in the wildlife pond early this morning, a pair of common frogs in a copulatory embrace called Amplexus. I rushed to the house to grab my camera before they disappeared. During our first spring living here we saw plenty of frog couples, but until now they had little choice but to use the large Koi pond, ending in disastrous results for the spawn.
If this pair (or any others) spawn in the wildlife pond it will have a greater chance of becoming tadpoles, I’m especially happy because our wildlife pond is less than a year old. We decided to add an additional small pond to our garden not long after moving here, our intention being to offer the already present frog and newt community a safe place to reproduce successfully.
Have you spotted any spawn where you are? Take part in this years Big Spawn Count and record your findings, the more people counting, the better the information to help provide more of an insight into the amorous lives of toads and frogs.
Anyone can take part in the Big Spawn Count by going to their garden or school pond, and counting the number of spawn present. You can print the form to help you complete the survey, please enter the results on-line afterwards.
http://www.freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/projects/big-spawn-count/
I’ll be watching, will you?
good job grabbing the camera in time. When I saw a beaver up a tree I had my son race inside for my phone to take pictures as my main camera was dead. I managed to get several pictures of a blob in a tree. Bravo!
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It is quite worrying how scarce frogs are getting. I used to have masses of frogspawn every year but for the last few years I haven’t had any. It’s the same with hedgehogs, where have all the hedgehogs gone?
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Hope you get lots of little tadpoles! We have a very, ahem, ‘wildlife friendly’ pond (ie it is a brambly wilderness that floods in winter and dries up in summer), but the newts do seem to love it. Not much frog action though, alas.
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The “horny” toads at our allotment keep us amused with their croaking. It’s amazing how much noise they make. There’s a ‘sloot’ or ditch where the live.
I shall be looking for spawn this year now. I’ve never really noticed it!
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What a beautiful picture of those frogs. We have a massive influx of breeding pairs every February and it is a full time job to keep the cat away from them (he has a penchant for frogs’ legs)! I think, despite kitty’s efforts, we have managed to get 3 decent sized globules of spawn in our miniature pond. :)
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I checked the pond first thing this morning, nothing that I can see yet. I saw the same pair last night as I locked the chickens away so fingers crossed they do spawn.
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Reblogged this on Cheslyn Hay Community Allotments.
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I’d be happy to see any frogs, breeding or not. We put a little pond in last year after spotting a frog in the back garden, I’ve not seen it since. Fab photos.
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From my not-so-scientific observations… spawn seems to appear a few days after you see the breeding pairs. Usually overnight. :)
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I will keep looking, I’m not sure how long this pair have been there. I didn’t see them at all today. So exciting!
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Lovely. Wish I had room for a pond.
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Your frogs must have woken up my frogs because they didn’t stop all day yesterday. The kids were playing a frog spotting game, extra points for frogs “playing piggyback” ;)
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Well done you for putting in a wildlife pond. I rarely see frogs at this time of year, but the first frogspawn appeared a couple of weeks ago.
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I’ve just installed a small wildlife pond on my allotment in Reading. Is it too late in the year for me to find some tadpoles to put in?
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